Effect of feeding flow rate on characteristics of CuInSe2 films prepared by flash evaporation

Copper indium selenide CuInSe2 (CISe) is one of the most promising absorber materials in high efficiency heterojunction thin-film solar cells due to its high conversion efficiency and known high stability. This paper describes a simple method for preparing CuInSe2 films from pre-prepared CuInSe2 ingot powder using a flash evaporation method. The primary goal of this work is to investigate the effect of feeding flow rate on CuInSe2 film characteristics. The powder feeding flow rate into the evaporator has been adjusted to control the film growth rate. Structure, composition, morphology, electrical and optical properties have all been studied for films deposited at different feeding flow rates. The results show that varying the feeding flow rate affects film characteristics, and that lower feeding rates yield films with better characteristics, which should be considered in future semiconductor film processing

Trust-based secure clustering in WSN-based intelligent transportation systems

Increasing the number of vehicles on roads leads to congestion and safety problems. Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a promising technology providing Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to address these problems. Usually, WSN-based applications, including ITS ones, incur high communication overhead to support efficient connectivity and communication activities. In the ITS environment, clustering would help in addressing the high communication overhead problem. In this paper, we introduce a bio-inspired and trust-based cluster head selection approach for WSN adopted in ITS applications. A trust model is designed and used to compute a trust level for each node and the Bat Optimization Algorithm (BOA) is used to select the cluster heads based on three parameters: residual energy, trust value and the number of neighbors. The simulation results showed that our proposed model is energy efficient (i.e., its power consumption is more efficient than many well-known clustering algorithm such as LEACH, SEP, and DEEC under homogeneous and heterogeneous networks). In addition, the results demonstrated that our proposed model achieved longer network lifetime, i.e., nodes are kept alive longer than what LEACH, SEP and DEEC can achieve. Moreover, the the proposed model showed that the average trust value of selected Cluster Head (CH) is high under different percentage (30% and 50%) of malicious nodes

Simultaneous detection of respiratory syncytial virus types A and B and influenza virus types A and B in community-acquired pneumonia by reverse transcription-multiplex PCR

Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) types A and B and influenza A and B cause about 80–90% of viral lower respiratory tract infections. It is impossible to distinguish the cause of viral respiratory infections by their clinical presentation. Multiplex RT-PCR has a significant advantage in that it permits the simultaneous amplification of several viruses in a single reaction facilitating cost-effective diagnosis and perhaps improved clinical management.Objectives: In this study, our aim was to determine the prevalence of influenza A and B, and RSV types A and B among children with CAP, by the use of the newly developed rapid, accurate, and pathogen-specific technique of multiplex RT-PCR in order to accomplish the greatest positive effect on patient care and health care costs.Study methodology: This study is a cross-sectional study involving 24 children admitted to the Children’s Hospital of the Ain Shams University due to severe lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI). Clinical and radiological assessment of all patients was performed followed by the molecular analysis of both respiratory and blood samples of all enrolled patients simultaneously by the use of the newly available reverse transcription-multiplex PCR technique (RT-m PCR).Results: Viral pneumonia was detected in one-third of enrolled patients (8/24), with the predominance of respiratory syncytial virus A (4/8), followed by influenza A virus (3/8) and influenza B virus (1/8) while no cases of respiratory syncytial virus B was detected. The same results were identified in both blood and respiratory specimens.Conclusion: Reverse transcription-multiplex PCR technique – multiplex has a significant advantage in that it permits the simultaneous amplification of several viruses in a single reaction making it well suited for use in epidemiological studies and to improve etiology-directed clinical management of viral pneumonia.Keywords: Viral pneumonia; LRTI; Children; Reverse transcription-multiplex PCR; RSV; Influenza viruse

Fragment screening reveals salicylic hydroxamic acid as an inhibitor of <em>Trypanosoma brucei</em> GPI GlcNAc-PI de-N-acetylase

The zinc-metalloenzyme GlcNAc-PI de-N-acetylase is essential for the biosynthesis of mature GPI anchors and has been genetically validated in the bloodstream form of Trypanosoma brucei, which causes African sleeping sickness. We screened a focused library of zinc-binding fragments and identified salicylic hydroxamic acid as a GlcNAc-PI de-N-acetylase inhibitor with high ligand efficiency. This is the first small molecule inhibitor reported for the trypanosome GPI pathway. Investigating the structure activity relationship revealed that hydroxamic acid and 2-OH are essential for potency, and that substitution is tolerated at the 4- and 5-positions